


Somewhere Out In The Woods

by BrittleDame



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 'Us against the world' trope, Broken Promises, Character Death, Descriptions of death/gore/violence, Disappearances, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Mild Gore, Monster Semi, Nightmares, alternative universe, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:47:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25992388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrittleDame/pseuds/BrittleDame
Summary: Shirabu was a lonely boy and had made peace with living an empty life as a hollow shell. That was until a bright and exuberant boy called Semi swept into his life like a whirl wind.In a world against them, they found solace in one another and then Semi goes missing in the woods. A sorrowful week later, a familiar scream from those very same woods draws Shirabu into its deadly clutches to discover his worst nightmare.Edit: Alternative ending now up.
Relationships: Semi Eita/Shirabu Kenjirou
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29





	1. Beginning of the End

**Author's Note:**

> This is heavily inspired by the song ‘In the woods somewhere’ by Hozier. I listened to the song and this literally just took off. 
> 
> If you’re not a fan of death/gore/violence even though it’s vaguely/briefly detailed, this is not for you.

Kenjirou was a lonely boy, shunned by both the townspeople and his own parents. He had made peace with living an empty life as a hollow shell of a person until a bright and exuberant boy called Semi swept into his life like a whirl wind.

They spent over half a decade together growing from awkward gangly teenagers to confident young adults. As their friendship blossomed, as did their feelings for one another. Semi was the one to dive off the deep end, confessing in an unconventional way that matched their relationship perfectly. Their love was slow going at the start but burned so fiercely within them that sometimes Kenjirou feared burning himself on the passion instilled in him.

Semi was a talented craftsman, deft hands found to be quite skilled for the intricate joints and carving of wooden furniture pieces. On the other hand, Kenjirou was born to a prosperous family, meaning he didn’t have to lift a finger to live in the lap of wealth. This lead to most of his time spent away from Semi buried amongst the books in his family library, the only place of warmth in the entire estate.

Kenjirou watched from the window as Semi waves up at him from the gate, signalling him to come down. If the maids ever made a comment to the estate’s owners about the disregard Kenjirou showed towards the house as he races through vast hallways and down a spiraling staircase right out of a fairy tale, his parents had never brought it up with him. Not that they went out of their way to talk to him in the first place.

Kenjirou launched himself into Semi’s waiting arms, smiling as Semi spins them around.

“I’m glad to see you aren’t buried under a stack of books. I feared that I wouldn't be able to catch your attention.” Semi jested, poking fun at Kenjirou’s avid reading habits. Semi has found Kenjirou many a time sleeping against a column of books he had accumulated during the day.

Kenjirou rolled his eyes at the comment and placed a chaste kiss on Semi’s chin. Semi pouted down at him for missing his lips, to which Kenjirou smirked at him. That was a small piece of revenge for his teasing.

“I was starting to get bored, the one I was reading was a bit too… fantastical for my taste.” Kenjirou grimaced. The novel detailed a world unknown to them, hidden by a mystical fog and played home to even more mystical beings.

Semi hummed to himself, placing his chin on top of the shorter’s head. Kenjirou bristled at the action but was ultimately complacent from how close the action brought their bodies together. Kenjirou craved moments like this so who was he to deny himself?

“Not that I mind you dropping in, but shouldn’t you be hard at work right now? What would your boss say about your slacking?” Kenjirou poked Semi’s sides, earning a grunt and a swat to his shoulder.

“Yes, about that,” Semi drew back, holding Kenjirou at an arms length away. “I’ve been tasked to go to the nursery to gather some wood for a big piece we got commissioned.”

Kenjirou’s face scrunched up, both in confusion and disbelief.

“Isn’t the nursery in the forest?” He inquired, gesturing towards the tall trees standing behind them. “Besides, you never had to do that before. Where was the man that did it before?”

Semi sighed, running a hand through his wind-swept hair. The older male looked worn-out looking as if he already had this exact argument with his boss.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I was _gifted_ the _pleasure_ of getting the timber.” Semi stressed the two ridiculous words, rolling his eyes whilst saying it. “Plus, there’s some extra coins in it, you know I can’t turn that down.”

Worry filled Kenjirou at Semi’s words. Biting his lip, he looked towards the foreboding looking trees, where Semi would shortly be journeying into.

“I’ve heard stories about that place. I don’t think it would be safe for you to go alone.” Kenjirou admitted after a beat of silence, tone portraying his trepidation.

Semi melted at his concern. A soft look adorned his handsome features. Kenjirou refused to give in though, he heard some gruesome tales about those woods and had met some of the people had would soon disappear within it.

“Look at me,” Semi grasped his chin and meet his gaze, “I promise I will be safe and back before you know it."

Kenjirou gave him a skeptical look and wrapped his arms back around the taller, not willing to let him go just yet.

“I never took you for someone to believe in such wives tales, I thought they’d be too fantastical for you.” Semi whispered into copper-toned hair, earning himself a hard whack.

In the short while Semi could spare with Kenjirou they spent it bantering and giving one another loving touches. Soon, Kenjirou rushed him off, knowing the sooner he left, the sooner he’d return.

“I’ll wait up for you, okay? The cooks will leave some supper near the hearth for you as well.” Kenjirou gave Semi’s well-muscled forearms from years of hard work a small squeeze.

Semi chose to answer with a kiss that set off a blaze within Kenjirou, a moan on the tip of his tongue as Semi withdrew.

“Try not to miss me too much.” He said with a cheeky grin that had Kenjirou tempted to pull him into another deep kiss just to wipe it off of his face.

The last words Semi spoke to Kenjirou were as he was leaving, already on the road to pick up some supplies for his journey. Turning back, Semi yelled out: “I love you!"

That was the last time Kenjirou saw Semi, a smile on his face as the sun burned bright above him, bathing him in ethereal light. He looked like an angel, Kenjirou’s personal angel sent from heaven to spare him from the demons on earth.

One moment Kenjirou was watching Semi walk down the street, the next he was looking over a horrific scene. From above Kenjirou saw Semi choking on his own blood, trying and failing to call for help, deep gouges in his side and his left leg wrenched to an odd angle. To Kenjirou’s growing horror, it looked like Semi was mauled by an animal and left for dead.

Kenjirou screamed until his throat was raw, doing everything in his power to get down there to help Semi – to let Semi know he was there and not alone. Tears in his eyes, he watches as the fountain of blood flowing from Semi slowed to a trickle, his golden skin fading to a death-like pallor. His struggling movements slowly coming to an end.

Thrashing around, Kenjirou ripped at his own flesh, hoping to get himself out of this nightmare. Semi’s gaze locked onto his and forced Kenjirou to watch the soul leave his beloved’s eyes.

Kenjirou wakes up with a hysterical scream on his lips and a feverish sweat drenching his form, a physical manifestation of his palpable fear. Heart pounding painfully inside his chest, Kenjirou grasped at it as he took deep breaths to calm himself and tried to shake away the dredges of the nightmare clinging to him.

Because that was all it was, a nightmare. There was no plausible way for Kenjirou to see Semi in the woods, much less witness his gruesome demise. He just imagined it all. Logic overtaking his frazzled mind, Kenjirou finally felt his clarity come back.

At the feeling of hot tears spilling over his face, Kenjirou crumbles, his mental fortitude evaporating into thin air as he unloads his sorrow. He cries out Semi’s name over and over again until his voice gives, then resorts to whimpering and mouthing his name.

Kenjirou silently begged and pleaded to something unknown, aware that his desperate pleas were falling upon deaf ears of a higher deity unfeeling. Kenjirou never did believe in a higher power, not with the life he had lead, and neither did Semi, but he was willing to give it a shot. He was willing to give anything a chance at this point.

“Come back, just come back to me. I swear I won’t be mad. Please just return to me.” He whispered, words curling around him and disappearing into the heavy night air just like the man he was calling out for.

Pulling himself together, he takes in shuddering breathes as he feels the numbing void inside eat away at the human parts that Semi had lovingly taught him and cherished. His parents were unfeeling and cold, giving Kenjirou as little physical contact as possible for him to survive infancy and effectively placing a glass box around him from that moment onwards.

He was raised to a replica of his affluent parents, another two factors which didn’t earn him much popularity with the kids in town. He was blunt, unintentionally rude and rich enough to want for nothing. They all loathed him, took every opportunity to harm him physically when their inane words failed to get a rise out of the apathetic copper-haired boy.

Then in came Semi. His life completely changed when Semi took him under his wing, much to Kenjirou’s initial distaste for the older boy’s fussing. After a few run-ins and some insult battles, they got along like a house on fire, much to the ire of the town and his parents. Soon, Semi joined him as a social outcast and Kenjirou refused to meet his eyes for the longest time until Semi confronted him about it.

_“Why are you acting so mopey lately? Where is that little spitfire I admire so much?” Kenjirou flushed at his words, pursing his lips to hide the smile that threatened to come out._

_“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Kenjirou huffs._

_“Now you’re just being stubborn on purpose, brat.”_

_Kenjirou stuck his tongue out at the unamused ash-blonde male. Arms crossed against his chest, Semi softly chuckles at Kenjirou’s childish behaviour, secretly glad that the younger was finally acting his age._

_“I have no idea why I like a brat like you so much.” Semi sighed, closing his eyes, faking a wistful expression._

Kenjirou remembers staring blankly at the older for several minutes, mind not comprehending his words. He remembers how vibrant Semi’s laugh was when he saw Kenjirou’s open mouthed shocked expression and teased the life out of him for impersonating a frog. That was the day Semi confessed to him. Incidentally, it was also the day that warmth saturated Kenjirou’s life.

A rumble tore Kenjirou away from his reverie, feeling extremely nostalgic at the fond memory. He feels hunger eat away in his stomach, painful enough to make a grown man to his knees. Kenjirou knows he should eat but he also reasons with himself that he’s undeserving of food or restful sleep when Semi is out there somewhere cold and suffering, as much as Kenjirou wished he weren’t.

Assuming Semi was dead after a week of disappearing into the line of trees into the ominous woods, the town quickly moved on with its everyday hustle and bustle, not once pausing to mourn the absence of Semi’s vibrancy. Kenjirou on the other hand refused to let him go as easy.

He knew something had happened in those woods because there was no other reason for Semi to abandon him like this. Semi may be – no he must be – alive in there, hurt and screaming for help only for no one to answer. That thought haunted every waking moment that passed Kenjirou without a protective Semi stuck to his side. Kenjirou knew it would be a suicide mission to go in the uncharted woods by himself, half-cocked and armed with weapons he wasn’t versed in.

So Kenjirou sought assistance from the very town that shunned him for a crime unknown to him. He begged and pleaded to any ear that didn’t immediately threaten to kill him for help or guidance for journeying into the woods.

Following the contempt and rejection Kenjirou faced, he spiraled into a deep depression. His mental state deteriorated at the scorn and threats he now received ten-fold in Semi’s absence. They would’ve never been so bold if Semi was around, he always was Kenjirou’s knight in shining armour as they liked to joke about often.

Kenjirou worried over his sanity, as he kept seeing glimpses of Semi's tall and lean figure around town and sometimes even his voice. Hearing his voice was the worse part. A ghostly figure he could wave away, as Semi had this innate ability to sense whenever Kenjirou was in his vicinity and immediate saddle up to his side, which left Kenjirou unable to ever surprise him with a sneaky hug.

The voice followed him at all hours, whether it be night or day. Kenjirou would heard it as he fell asleep, whispering sweet nothings he’s heard a million times before when Semi snuck into his room. Every time he heard Semi’s deep and jovial timbre, Kenjirou would whirl around, eyes frantically seeking out other’s form.

Moon still hanging high in the sky, Kenjirou deduced that he had little to no sleep before the nightmare had him in its grasp. The chilled air quickly cooled Kenjirou’s feverish temperature and dried the sweat sticking to his skin, causing an uncomfortable feeling to settle over him.

Raising himself from the bed, as soon as his feet touched the ground, he started teeter to the side. Yelping out loud, Kenjirou grasped at his bed to steady himself. His legs were weak, a reflection of his weary soul. He had not fared well since Semi left him exactly seven days and seven nights ago.

Kenjirou found that his mind was more liable to minor psychosis where he’d find it hard to differentiate the present from the past. He began to think that his only anchor to sanity had left him bereft in a world that stripped one of morals and stewed in its own hatred.

If someone had told him six years ago that he would fall apart at the seams when a man name Semi disappeared, Kenjirou would have scoffed and spat some vitriolic response at the idiot. With the power of foresight, Kenjirou knew he fell in love with Semi at the first gentle touch he gave Kenjirou after chasing away his tormentors. The past six years have been long and arduous, but it was well worth the many golden moments he shared with Semi.

He recalled every picnic under the sun in the field just outside his parent’s property. He cherished every stolen touch and kiss shared between them under the protective guise of night. He treasured every night he got to spend lulled to sleep in the ash-blonde’s arms as he mindlessly rambles about what he had done that day.

If Kenjirou had known how quickly it could all be ripped away from him, he would have begged Semi not to leave that day, to just get someone else to retrieve the timber from those damned woods. Semi would have paused at Kenjirou’s uncharacteristic pleading, eventually giving in after a pout and a flutter of pale eyelashes. Semi would be here with him right now, not somewhere lost in the forest.

Clutching his hands over his face, Kenjirou let out a shaky breath at the unbidden thoughts of the other strings of fate Semi may have followed. The hole in his chest grew larger, feeding off of his grim thoughts.

 _No_ , Kenjirou argued to himself, Semi was the strongest person he knew. If anyone could survive a week in those woods, it would be his resilient Semi.

An awful noise filled the air, causing Kenjirou to jump in place, head snapping towards his window. He recognised it as a woman’s voice screaming somewhere within the woods lying just beyond the property boundary. Staggering back from the window, Kenjirou hesitates at the eerie noise. He knew those woods weren’t right, they had taken many a person, one being very dear and precious to him. Kenjirou despised those woods and he’d be damned before it lured him in its deadly clutches.

Silence once again reigns the night with a severe hand, crushing any and all noise out until it buzzes in Kenjirou’s ears. It wasn't long before another alarming scream rung out in the air, cutting through Kenjirou like a knife. This time the scream was familiar.

While Kenjirou had never heard Semi outright scream, he had heard him yell and shout quite loudly to drive away horrible teens kicking a fallen Kenjirou, and even once during a more pleasurable occasion. But this scream was born from fear and pain, something Kenjirou couldn’t bear to think of.

Without thinking, Kenjirou jumps up and scrambles out of the family home, uncaring of how he may have disturbed them and the punishment he’ll surely receive for it. One possible chance of finding Semi was worth a million lifetimes spent in the cold and quite household, the grandeur blinding those to the heartless owners.

In his haste, he did not spare a moment to grab a tool that may help him later on, such as a light or a weapon to defend himself, something he'd soon come to regret. The moon lit his path, acting as beacon for him to find light of his life, Kenjirou silently thanked the celestial being as he ran between the border of menacing trees.

The soft soles of his feet tore as he rushed through thick underbrush, rocks and sharp sticks cutting deeply. Kenjirou brushed aside the pain. What he was experiencing was only a fraction of what Semi had experienced to unleash such an alarming noise.

Legs pumping, lungs burning, Kenjirou ate up the distance between them like the starved man he was. No matter how tired and sore his limbs may get, he would not rest until he had Semi safely within his arms once again.

Kenjirou ended up stumbling upon a small clearing, bereft of a tall and pale-haired man. His heart sank at the sight and he tried to battle down the overwhelming grief that threatened to choke him yet again. He pressed cold hands against his warm face, hastily scrubbing away the unsolicited tears welling in his eyes. Semi would be so disappointed to find out how Kenjirou had managed in his absence. He could almost hear Semi teasing him for his widow-like mood since he disappeared.

A scratching sound to his right ripped Shirabu away from his musings, his eyes alighting upon a glassy-eyed red fox. The woman’s voice he thought he had heard turned out to be the fox’s screams. Kenjirou knew about the incredible vocal range the creatures possessed from one of Semi’s many rambles about the beauty of nature. He fought down his dismay at finding the shaking creature, attempting to scrounge up the same empathy Semi bathed him with for the animal’s current state.

Grievously wounded, the fox had bone and sinew exposed to the crisp night air, hind lame from the sharp claws that had torn into it. Kenjirou felt detached from his body as he watched the blood swell out of the gouges and soak the mossy ground. the scene was much too similar to the nightmare he had just experienced. The woods accepted the blood sacrifice and wasted not a drop, dirt greedily swallowing the life substance as the animal painfully fades away.

The fox was mortally wounded and left for dead, not mindlessly hunted for its meat. Whatever had attacked this fox had practically tortured and maimed it for pleasure. It was that thought which scared Kenjirou more than his worst fear of losing Semi, as facing ones mortality would do.

Coming back to himself, Kenjirou knew what he had to do. It would be wrong to leave the fox to live its last moments insufferably, especially when Kenjirou was present to alleviate it from a painful life, no matter how short. He quickly found the largest rock nearby, kneeled by the dying fox and raised the rock above his head.

He whispered a soft apology and well wishes before he committed the deed. As he swung down the rock, putting the creature out of its misery, Kenjirou could stop the wish of someone to come along and grant him the same blessing. He quickly banished the thought from his mind. He had much to live for before his end came.

Kenjirou stayed beside the carcass, gently stroking its fur as he unknowingly continued to mumble apologies to it. For what, Kenjirou didn’t know. For the abrupt end? For the horrific way to go? For living a life as naught but fodder for the other creatures scampering in the woods and fertiliser for the trees?

Kenjirou didn’t know, but he didn’t know a lot of things, so he took solace in his own actions. It felt like the right thing to do anyway.

With the cloud of grief overshadowing his lucidity gone, questions grew and crowded his mind.

 _‘What could have caused such a deep wound?’_ Nothing with claws large enough to slice bone apart lived in these parts.

 _‘How large must its teeth be to grind the hind legs to mush?’_ Only smaller predatory animals like the foxes and related species dominated these woods, as far as Kenjirou was aware of.

Uneasiness permeated the air. Kenjirou was on edge from the silence of woods he only just now realised. It was beyond strange that the woods so full of life became as silent as a coffin at his intrusion, suggestive of the fox's predator not straying too far from its prey. The branches of the wise trees rattled and whispered tales of his doomed fate, the rushing wind pulling at his clothes and screaming _‘run, boy, run while you can’_ into his ears. Kenjirou didn’t listen to the woods, not wanting to feed into his paranoia.

The new breeze brought along with it a rancid stench that had Kenjirou crinkling his noise. Kenjirou briefly considers covering his nose at the smell from the fresh carcass before he realises that the fox only smelt of dirt and iron, not the smell of dead flowers and decaying flesh.

Turning to the side, a visceral horror fills his entire being as he meets the gleaming eyes of something watching him between the thicket at the edge of the clearing.

Stepping out into the light, Kenjirou fought the wave of nausea washing through him at the appearance of the beast. It truly was a beast, for was neither man nor animal. It stood taller than Kenjirou on hind legs, elongated and bent at odd angles from additional articulating joints, fingers coming to sharp blackened tips, horns similar to a ram sprouting from its skull. Its skin had intermittent patches of missing skin, exposing muscles and sinew, but most of its body was covered in tattered clothes that would have struck Kenjirou as familiar if not for the viscera from a previous prey covering it.

The creature smiled at him with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, pale hair on top of its skull looking like strands of captured starlight stained deep red at the tips from its round with the fox. Just like the fox, Kenjirou’s instincts took over and he froze like the prey he had suddenly become. His breaths visible in the cold night air, as he fails his rapidly beating heart from further enticing the creature to eat him.

Kenjirou knew how the beast perceived him: an unarmed fleshy and scared stiff meal. An easy catch for any ravenous beast. Except for the fact that this particular one didn’t seem starved, if the fox’s fate was any indication. It possessed enough intelligence to derive excitement from taunting and torturing animals and actively sought it out to achieve that same high. There were startling similarities between the monster before Kenjirou and the humans in town, albeit Kenjirou supposed at least this creature looked like a monster, unlike the cherub-faced kids that once tormented him.

A serpentine tongue slithered out between jagged teeth, flicking out as if to taste Kenjirou’s fear perfuming the air. Kenjirou stood in place, tense and unwilling to take the first step away in fear of eliciting an attack.

The thick tongue hung from its maw, not fussed by Kenjirou’s rapid breathing. If anything, the disturbing grin seemed to grow the longer Kenjirou stayed in place. Perspiration dotted along the tawny-haired male's brow, limbs tensing in preparation for when the creature inevitably attacked him.

He didn’t have to wait long. The creature lunged at him and Kenjirou wasted not a second before he turned and ran, burying his thoughts and fears as he ran.

Being the sensible man that he was, even fleeing for his life, Kenjirou knew he was trying to save a life he didn’t have. He knew that when the sun kissed the horizon, his body would be cold and forgotten somewhere in these cruel woods, just like Semi’s.

Life was bittersweet to him, he had everything at the tip of his fingers monetarily and yet had nothing in the form of what truly defined the human experience. Kenjirou was breezing through life as an imitation of a human before Semi blown into his life and showed him friendship and love in a world full of cold indifference.

He flew through the woods, feet barely touching upon the ground as he darts through the woods on borrowed time. Deep, deep down a sad and forgotten part of Kenjirou wanted to just lay down and let the beast’s claws make its home in his flesh, tearing his limbs asunder. A flash of hair as pale as the moonlight illuminating his way, eyes as dark and deep as the unyielding trees surrounding him, and an unrelenting personality the same as the beast hunting him down rose to the forefront of his mind and drove him forward. He has to live through this night.

That same deep dark part of him whispered horrible truths of Semi’s fate somewhere here among these towering trees. He’s half afraid of stumbling across the decaying corpse of his love while he ducked under thick branches and hopped over large rocks. The creature hot on his heels stripped those fears away and replaced them quite thoroughly with ones of being shredded to pieces, head sheared clean off by sharp claws.

While Kenjirou didn’t have the most pleasant life, it was still upsetting to him that his choice to live was taken away from him. He wanted so desperately to leave this town with Semi, somewhere without gossip-mongering elderly and resentful youth. He so desperately wanted a life with the man that gave his life meaning, the same man that unintentionally lead him to be hunted down like game.

Kenjirou clutched at his life like he still had a will to live. Like he wanted to continue an existence where Semi suffered a terrible fate he didn’t earn while Kenjirou lived in his one full of undeserved luxury. Maybe Kenjirou was a foolish man, he foolishly fell in love when he swore he could feel none, he foolishly thought the townspeople didn’t truly hate them so much as to abandon Semi in his darkest hour, he foolishly ran into the woods to find his worst nightmare come realised.

 _'Semi, my dearest love, I’m not done yet.'_ Kenjirou swears mostly to himself. He’s mind felt like mush from the lack of proper rest, his muscle feeling like jelly encasing his tired bones, yet he still ran and ran. He no longer was living for just himself, he reasoned between shallow breaths, he had to live to find Semi.

An unearthed root turned out to be the cause of Kenjirou’s fall into fate’s vicious plot. Tumbling onto his hands and knees, he skidded across the soft dirt and was thrown against a rock. The breath was knocked out of his aching lungs, his mind fading to black for a second before his senses rushed back to him all at once.

Laid out across the ground, Kenjirou cracked open his eyes only for his left one to be blinded by blood gushing from a wound on his forehead. Raising a hand, he felt the tender wound and winced at the feeling before gauging his other injuries. Much to his relief, he found he could both feel and move his arms and legs, albeit his mind was hazed over in pain from the rough tumble.

Dazedly, Kenjirou moves his head to the side to witness the creature emerging from rustling bushes. His legs felt as lame as the fox’s that he killed, Kenjirou knew he could no longer afford himself the delusion of escaping.

With bated breath, he observed the creature stalking towards him, gait made awkward from its unnatural proportions. The moonlight glinted off of sharp rows of teeth, the wind rustled at pale blood-soaked hair and its beady eyes gleamed with glee at its catch.

Soon, the creature was leaning over Kenjirou’s battered body, eyeing his injuries and coming to the obvious conclusion that his prey could no longer escape. Saliva drooled out of its gaping maw, thick stands dripping down elongated teeth and Kenjirou’s tired mind refused to provide him anymore fear.

The creature bent down, bringing its face – if it could even be called that – close his. Defeated, Kenjirou did not tense when its visage was in his space, close enough for rancid breath to wash over his skin and draw out goosebumps.

The creature pauses as it scents the air. Clearly interested in whatever it found, it moves away from Kenjirou and instead stares at him. Confused, Kenjirou furrowed his brows at the beast’s unusual action. Shouldn’t it have started tearing into him by now? Kenjirou should be choking on his blood, legs bent to odd angles as a parody to the nightmare Semi's demise.

Using the time to study his angel of death, Kenjirou scrutinizes the being. Where the skin wasn’t ripped open, it was pale and smooth with a few dark marks resembling freckles and beauty marks dotted around. His eyes latch onto one particular mark that has Kenjirou’s mind once again stalling.

There, just above the creature’s right hip, was a large scar that cut up diagonally through skin. The flesh was still the same pale pink Kenjirou had kissed a thousand times on Semi’s lowest nights when ghostly pain haunted him. Semi had acquired that nasty scar from saving Kenjirou from getting stabbed by a rowdy teenager in the town square, too eager to show his worth to his worthless friends. Ever the knight in shining armour, Semi had quite literally jumped in and saved Kenjirou from a knife being embedded into his kidney.

Realisation hits Kenjirou like a blow to the head, hard and unforgiving, as he pieces his disordered thoughts together. The being had pale hair that looked like spun moonlight, exactly like Semi’s. It had Semi’s freckles, moles and scars in the areas where the flesh was still intact. Now that he was close enough, he could see a thin ring of mahogany brown irises hidden by blown-wide pupils.

Tears rise to his eyes at the thought of finding Semi. He imagined this moment since the moment Semi disappeared and yet he never thought it’d be so bittersweet and horrific. Raising a shaky hand, Kenjirou gently cups what remains of Semi’s cheek, glad when he didn’t startle away at the movement.

“Oh darling, what happened to you?” Kenjirou cried in earnest now. He shed the tears that Semi no longer could.

“That’s alright, it’s alright,” Kenjirou rambled, “I can fix this. We can fix this and go back to normal.”

Predatory eyes gleam back at him, unfeeling and animalistic in relation to the lack of fire and boisterous personality Semi had once possessed. The being stares blankly back at him, uncomprehending of the deluge of words spilling from Kenjirou’s mouth. That thought broke Kenjirou even more.

Drool escapes its – no that’s Semi, just a different version of him – maw and drips onto Kenjirou’s stained sleeping pants. Kenjirou has to face his inner turmoil alone, tears continuing to spill over his face as he again pleads once again fall on deaf ears. He had cried more during this one night than in his entire lifetime.

It was wearing Semi’s skin, no matter how mangled and deformed, Kenjirou reasoned to himself. He spent enough nights mapping every inch of it by candlelight to know. It has Semi’s eyes too; dark and hard as the mahogany table Kenjirou’s father used to throw him against, but paradoxically soft whenever he gazed at Kenjirou. In his heart of hearts, the copper-haired male knew that those eyes no longer held the soul that Kenjirou swore to love until his dying breath, a naïve promise born under too-bright stars on a warm summer night.

The night air is once against startled by another scream sounding in the distance. The Not-Semi’s head turns towards the direction of the sound and began moving away from Kenjirou.

In fear of once again losing Semi again, Kenjirou sat up and grabbed at the torn once-cream coloured shirt Kenjirou had gifted Semi. He just found Semi, he didn’t want to lose him again, even if he was not the Semi he’d sought out.

“I love you so much, Eita. Please don’t leave me. You promised me an eternity together.” He yelled out. “Don’t you dare back out of it.”

Not-Semi turns back at the loud noises coming from Kenjirou. Hope springs up inside of him, maybe Semi was still in there, just deeply buried.

It was the soulless eyes that shatters that fragile hope. He quietly despairs as Semi slowly blinks at him before taking off in the direction of the scream without any acknowledgement of his heart-felt words.

A deep cold permeates his body and soul, settling deep in his bones. Kenjirou had never felt so lonely and broken in his life. Face buried in his hands, he unleashes his anguish unto the world, uncaring of attracting another predator.

He knew not how long he spent in those woods freezing cold, covered in tears and splatters of fox blood, his mind was blissfully hazy from all his crying. He was unable to string together a coherent thought from exhaustion and trauma from the night finally collapsing onto him.

A faint light different from before, filtered through the leaves, signalling it was time to leave.

Standing up on weak legs, Kenjirou made the long journey back to the town he despised with his entire being. The journey was short and passed by in the blink of an eye, even with his sluggish pace.

He stopped just before stepping though the line of trees separating reality from the surrealistic events that had transpired. He hesitated, not wanting to find out if this was all just a fever dream, even though the cuts on his hands and knees contested that idea.

Taking his first step into his life without Semi’s warmth and fussing, Kenjirou’s heart felt like a stone within his chest. He didn’t know how many years he could bear this indescribable pain, but he had to live at least for Semi’s sake. There had to be a way to get Semi back and he won’t rest until he does, whatever the sacrifice.

He took solace in the fact that he know knew Semi was somewhere out there in the woods, hopefully waiting for the day Kenjirou to come save him.


	2. Bad Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenjirou meets his inevitable fate with a smile on his face and his lover's name on his lips.
> 
> An alternative ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of the endings I was contemplating on originally writing, but it's a bit more morbid than the one I ended up including so now it has its own chapter.
> 
> Please enjoy the extra Semishira angst.

An unearthed root turned out to be the cause of Kenjirou’s fall into fate’s torturous plot. Tumbling onto his hands and knees, he skidded across the soft dirt and was thrown against a rock. The breath was stolen from his over-worked lungs, his consciousness temporarily knocked out of him, leaving him unguarded for a crucial moment.

Laid out across the ground, Kenjirou cracked open his eyes. His left eyelid felt heavy, the blood gushing from a wound on his forehead robbing him of his sight. Raising a hand, he felt the tender wound and winced at the feeling before gauging his other injuries. Much to his relief, he found he could both feel and move his arms and legs, albeit his mind was hazed over in pain from the rough tumble.

At the sound of rustling bushes, Kenjirou dazedly rolls his head to the side to meet the sight of the beast emerging from the thicket. An epiphany of a death contract filled Kenjirou's mind eye at the sight, signed at the bottom was his own name in looping cursive.

This was it. That fall mediated by his haste to live another moment just sealed his doom. His legs felt as lame as the fox’s, Kenjirou knew he could no longer afford himself the delusion of escaping. It was almost poetic justice that he'd meet the same end as the animal that he had killed, good intentions aside.

With bated breath, he observed the creature stagger towards him, gait made awkward from its unnatural proportions. The moonlight glinted off of sharp rows of teeth, the wind swept through pale blood-soaked hair. Beady eyes gleamed with cruel glee at its second successful catch of the night.

Soon, the delighted creature was leaning over Kenjirou’s stationary body, eyeing his injuries and coming to the obvious conclusion that his prey could no longer escape. Saliva drooled out of its gaping maw, thick stands dripping down elongated teeth and landing onto Kenjirou’s dirtied clothes.

The creature bent down, bringing its monstrous visage close to Kenjirou's. It was now close enough that the human outwardly recoiled at the smell of death and decay emanating from the being. Defeated, Kenjirou did not tense or make to move away it invaded his space. Although, his acceptance of his fate did not stop the tremors claiming his body.

True to how Kenjirou pinned the creature, it did not immediately attack and kill him. It’s beady eyes somehow examining Kenjirou, as if in contemplation of what to do first.

Would it break his legs first, so that he couldn’t run? Just like with the fox?

Or would it slit his throat so his screams wouldn’t reach helpful ears and take away its fun? That way it could gorge itself on his innards with leisure and enjoy tormenting Kenjirou without interference.

Borrowing more time, Kenjirou now studies his angel of death, scrutinising the being back in kind. Where the skin wasn’t ripped open, it was pale and smooth with a few dark marks resembling moles sprinkled across it’s skin like the night sky above them. His eyes latch onto one particular mark that has his blood freeze in his veins.

There, just above the creature’s right hip was a large scar that cut up diagonally through skin. The flesh was still the same pale pink Kenjirou had kissed a thousand times on Semi’s lowest nights when ghostly pain haunted him. Semi had acquired that nasty scar from saving Kenjirou from getting stabbed by a rowdy teenager in the town square, too eager to show his worth to his worthless friend. Ever the knight in shining armour, Semi had quite literally jumped in and saved Kenjirou from a knife getting embedded into his kidney.

It was wearing Semi’s skin, no matter how mangled and deformed it was. Kenjirou could not deny this fact. All the signs were there in front of him. He stared at the scar in abject horror. Cold realisation floods him as he connects that the being eyeing him like a meal was in fact the man he had oh so foolishly rushed into save.

Kenjirou could feel hysterical laughter bubble up within him at the irony of the situation he forced himself into. Eita had saved his life by rushing in like the hard-headed fool that Kenjirou had berated him for being, and yet Kenjirou’s imitating actions has led him to an early end at the very hands of the man that constantly saved him.

Kenjirou had spent what felt like a lifetime pinned under the creature’s sharp gaze. Hidden deep within those cold eyes, Kenjirou hoped that a flash of recognition would spark against the all-consuming darkness and kindle the love that the ash-blonde male shamelessly showered Kenjirou with.

“I finally found you, Eita.” Kenjirou breathes out the words, breaking the tenuous moment between them.

The Not-Semi breaks eye contact at the unprompted words. Slowly blinking, it pulls it’s torn-up lips back to reveal just how long and wicked its fangs truly were. It was in that exact moment that the fragile Kenjirou had fostered in his heart shattered against the hard and unfeeling floor of his logical mind. Those eyes no longer possessed the soul that Kenjirou swore to love until his dying breath, a naïve promise born under too-bright stars on a warm summer night.

The truth hurt. It squeezed Kenjirou’s heart so tightly within his chest, it hurt to breath; to live with the knowledge that Kenjirou was never able to help Eita. Kenjirou would pay dearly for his folly for believing he could truly save Eita in a way that mattered. Instead, he lost himself in lovely delusions. Now he will have to suffer the consequences of his foolish actions by dying with the knowledge that Eita was already dead and gone.

“I’m so sorry I was late, my love.” Kenjirou roughly whispers, voice cracking over the syllables as grief chokes him.

Hysteria and sorrow swirled chaotically within him, clashing and colliding. Kenjirou’s tired mind was swept away in a deluge of conflicting emotions. He achieved his goal of finding Eita, but in a cruel twist of fate it turned out to be his worst nightmare brought to life.

Life was never easy for Kenjirou, so why would this be any different? Tears gather in the corners of his eyes as he mourns for Eita’s death. It made him incredibly sad that he would be the only one to mourn his exuberant and lively beloved's demise while he was about die himself, unable to properly honour his death.

Eita hated seeing Kenjirou crying, always going out of his way to prevent these fits or lessen the effects by encasing him within strong arms and ridding out the storm together.

Together. They always did everything together. Kenjirou feels a small smile rise to his lips at the thought that this occasion would be no exception. While Eita wasn’t really here, his physical form was enough to assuage the wild part of him that didn’t want to die, forgetting how horrific his life without Semi would be.

His smile falters slightly as a wet tongue licks a hot stripe up his throat. Pleased with the taste of sweat and fear, Not-Semi licks at his teeth with lips pulling up in a mockery of the smile that Kenjirou was blessed with daily.

Stealing some of the optimism Semi showered him with, Kenjirou smiles up at the maw approaching his throat.

"I love you, Eita. Forever and always."

Kenjirou didn’t know how many years how could bear unknowing of what he may have missed finding in the woods if he just ignored the screams. It was his undying devotion and desperation for a glimmer of hope of finding Eita that delivered him to a tragic lover's ending. This cruel turn of fate was much like Kenjirou’s life, full of unexpected evils and with never a joyous moment without its large shadow of misfortune shortly following.

Kenjirou received his fate with teary eyes, a bittersweet smile and a name on his lips as his love delivered him to death’s doorstep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended procrastinating my tonne of other fics I have planned for this pair rip.
> 
> I have a tonne of course work I need to focus on before I can even think about working on them properly, so I'm suffering rn ahaha
> 
> Critiques, Comments & Kudos are always appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote two endings for this, both bittersweet but very different. I may end up posting it later on, but we shall see. I now have 5 wips and yet I needed to get this out of my head.
> 
> Critiques, Comments & Kudos are always welcomed!!


End file.
